Investor selling stake in company with La. malls

Investor selling stake in company with La. malls

NEW YORK — Asset manager Blackstone Group LP plans to sell a minority stake in mall operator General Growth Properties Inc., whose Louisiana properties include the Mall of Louisiana in Baton Rouge, Oakwood Center in Gretna and Pecanland Mall in Monroe.

In August 2010, Blackstone Group agreed to invest about $500 million for shares in General Growth once it emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

An investor group made up of Canadian property manager Brookfield Asset Management Inc., The Fairholme Fund and William Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management agreed to provide up to $8.5 billion in capital to finance General Growth’s exit from bankruptcy.

General Growth, a real estate investment trust, said Tuesday that Blackstone and affiliates will sell approximately 23.4 million shares of common stock — or a 2.5 percent interest — in its company through a secondary offering.

General Growth has 939.4 million outstanding shares, according to FactSet. General Growth, with headquarters in Chicago, said it won’t receive any proceeds from the stock sale by Blackstone. No price or timing was disclosed.

At the time of the bankruptcy filing, General Growth had other Louisiana properties that are no longer on its website: Riverwalk Market Place, in New Orleans; Riverlands Shopping Center, LaPlace; Mall St. Vincent, Shreveport; and Pierre Bossier Mall, Bossier City.